So it’s sick season (once again), this time a bacterial infection that seems to have got to everybody at home, maid included. Not a great way to end the year:|
Speaking of infections, the annoying trend of blood and gore in movies continues unabated, this time reaching Malayalam cinema, which is traditionally known to have more intelligence associated with their stories. However, in the days of pan-India violence, it must have been hard to resist. So apparently there is a movie called Marco that makes Animal seem like ahimsa in comparison.
Reviews are gushing( and so is blood) over the ‘rawness of the action’ and the ‘wonderfully choreographed’ chop-a-minute, so much so that it now stands to be dubbed into Hindi and prematurely replace another blood-and-gore over the top (but under the mandatory 6-feet hero) flop show called Baby John. The Hindi heartland loves such ‘massy’ cinema it seems, which makes me worried, a lot.
I don’t mind a good action flick, but from the past few years it’s just gone from bad to worse to obnoxious and ridiculous. The same slow motions, axes, 250 overfed and under-delivering henchmen who seem like they can drop a bull…they scream and start to run towards the hero, one at a time, only to literally bounce off the tarmac like a Jasprit Bhumrah beauty…That’s like one down in one shot, possibly with an axe newly welded to his head or torso, with the hero not even looking in his direction (but downwards or sideways for some reason) – and then the scared (over) reaction of the others who don’t seem to get the message, and repeat the same thing anyway.
And very very loud background noise – cacophony rather. Supposed to elevate the scene, just in case you didn’t feel the blood on your face and puke already.
At the end of it, you have around 50 bodies lying on the floor in various stages of chop-chop, that’s 50 FIR’s right there in one scene. But no one bothers and 10 minutes later, a similar scene, this time with sand flying all over instead of the rain. And so on, and so forth.
Also, nowadays, the hero (and the villian) seem to like to hold the knife/axe/weapon of choice in between their teeth, blood and all, just to be more err…menacing. Wonder who does the dentals later.
Anyways, there is a long list of such movies in the pipe, with each one trying to beat the other in ‘novelty’ (read, more henchmen, bigger axes, more rain, more wind, also more bounce in the henchmen). And a hell lot of slow motion. Sometimes, the hero piles up the bodies and sits on them too, kind of overtime work that no one really asked for and no one paid for, just to light a cigarette (to let off some steam as if he hadn’t already).
Why do people enjoy such hyper-violent movies nowadays? I remember back in the day, Sholay was touted as the most violent movie of its time, but I suspect that Gabbar would have to be one of those overfed henchmen if he ever made a move to resurface today. Mogambo – lol common – no crocodile-infested pools anymore – a couple of axes and innovative cuts to pack some just in time for supper.
Pran – you must be joking. He would be booed away by 6 year olds now.
A society that thrives on such violence, at some point in time, normalizes it in its collective head. The video games are all about blood spurting all over, the movies are the same, everywhere you go, people seem to get angry at the drop of a hat. Does an angry society really achieve anything monumental collectively? Or do we stay busy harboring an internal hate that we go to externalise through these movies?
We really need to think about this. It is time. Enough.